God Speaks

As we all know, words are powerful, important, significant.

As an adult who was raised in the church by Christian parents, I tend to take Christianity for granted. I don't have a big conversion story. There is no great before I was a Christian, now I am a Christian defining moment in my life. As a young teenager, I realized I needed Christ and I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior. My walk with Christ has not been straight. There are times in my life when I was far, far, far, far, probably as far away from the Lord as one can be. In the past 5 years or so as I've been drawn closer and closer, I'm realizing just how significant "Christianity" is. It is not something that fits in a box. It is not something that applies to only one aspect of my life. It's not something I can only do on Sundays, or when I'm at church, or when it comes up in conversation, or whenever I feel like.

"The fall" is bigger than the first sin. Sin is HUGE.

Faith is more than believing that God exists. Faith is enormous.

These things are too big to be shoved around, manipulated to serve my purpose. The image that comes to mind is a tiny ant pushing a mountain. My entire life, I've tried to use Christianity to my advantage. I've been that ant trying to boss around the mountain.

Oh, how I am humbled. Oh, how the Lord is teaching me.

In War of Words, the first chapter is God Speaks. I'm not sure that I have enough time to begin discussing the significance of this chapter, so I'm going to be brief. As brief as possible for me, which probably means not very brief.

Tripp has a gift for making me say:
"Wow!"
"Really?"
"I never thought of that!"
"Oh, Lord, this is way bigger than I ever thought."

The first time I had a reactive thought was to this sentence: "You do not really understand the significance of words until you realize that the first words humans heard were not the words of another human being, but the words of God!"

Before the fall, God, Adam and Eve, were in perfect communication with each other. He created Adam and Eve, then He spoke openly and freely WITH them. Perhaps that doesn't amaze you the way it amazed me. God, the Creator of the Universe, spoke plainly enough in words that Adam and Eve could understand! He was not hiding in silence, letting Adam and Eve figure things out on their own. He was explaining Himself to them, explaining their world to them. He was communing with them.

When Adam and Eve spoke to each other, it glorified God. There was no miscommunication. They understood perfectly what the other person meant. Their words were kind, thoughtful, and loving. Their words were perfect because they were designed by the Lord to glorify Himself and each other.

Tripp makes another point that takes my breath away. I had never considered the fact that Adam and Eve were LIKE God because they had the ability to talk. No other animal in creation has the ability to communicate through words--God set Adam and Eve apart by giving them the skills to communicate perfectly.

All this changed at the bite of the apple.

Words do three things: define, explain, and interpret.

I must copy two paragraphs directly from Tripp at the end of Chapter 1. They are too powerful to ignore.

". . .Our words belong to the Lord. He is the Great Speaker. The wonder, the signifcance, the glory of human communication has its roots in his glory and in his decision to talk with us and allow us to talk with him and others. God has unlocked the doors of truth to us, using words as his key. The only reason we understand anything is that he has spoken. Words belong to God, but he has lent them to us so that we might know him and be used by him.

This means that words do not belong to us. Every word we speak must be up to God's standard and according to his design. They should echo the Great Speaker and reflect his glory. When we lose sight of this, our words lose their only shelter from difficulty. Talk was created by God for his purpse. Our words belong to him." (Tripp, pg. 15)

I can't begin to tell you how short I've fallen today of glorifying God by speaking words that are up to His standard.

Tripp provides some questions for his readers to consider. I'm just going to leave you with a few.

--Does your talk with others lead to biblical problem solving?
--Does you talk have a "stand together" or a "me against him/her/them" posture?
--Do your words encourage others to be open and honest about their thoughts and feelings?
--Are you approachable and teachable or defensive and self-protective when talking with others?
--Does your talk encourage faith and personal spiritual growth in those around you?

In Him,
Natalie